Ted Leo is back to fronting Ted Leo And The Pharmacists after his The Both project with Aimee Mann. Of course, with the closure of the Triple Rock Social Club and Ted Leo’s popularity, the upcoming show is sold out.

Ted Leo’s new album is called The Hanged Man, his most personal and saddest record according to fans and critics.

In contrast, Brooklyn's Great Good Fine Ok had a slightly longer 40-min set. Highlight of their set, was midway into their song ‘By My Side’ as Luke "the Shredmaster" Moellman did his best keytar solo.
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And The Kids was the group sandwiched between these two amazing groups and they were more than able to hold their own. This female trio had energy and feeling
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Brooklyn’s Highly Suspect (featuring twin brothers Rich on bass and Ryan Meyer on drums, and Johnny Stevens on vocals and guitar) just sold out First Avenue’s mainroom last Friday, March 31st. The trio is touring in support of their second studio album The Boy Who Died Wolf (300 Records).

Opening up the show was Northampton’s And The Kids. The band was only added to the bill a few days before the show (less than five days ago), as evident by the lack of their name on the show poster. According to Johnny Stevens later, he said that And The Kids was his most favorite band ever and he personally requested them on the bill.

Normally a quartet (Hannah Mohan, Rebecca Lasaponaro, Megan Miller, Taliana Katz), I believe for their live shows, they’re only trio (minus Megan Miller on keys)... as with their previous appearance in April 2016, opening up for Ra Ra Riot.

Songs on their set included several from their latest Friends Share Lovers (Signature Sounds) and based on lyrics, they are friends struggling with adolescence and adulthood (despite living in Canada, New York, Massachusetts and “sharing lovers”).

After And the Kids left the stage, DJ Redbees, kept the crowd entertained with his music choices. DJ Redbees, aka Tim Murphy, also served as kind of a hype-man for Highly Suspect, often encouraging the audience to cheer when he asked if we were excited to see the band.

It wasn’t too long before Highly Suspect took the stage to a very restless sold out audience. Any possible signs that the band was on stage were greeted with huge cheers (even for the awkward stage hand who was just trying to adjust the mic).

As we previously mentioned, we caught the band as opener in September 2015 and were impressed that more than half the audience was there for Highly Suspect.

Like their last appearance in September 2016, the band is still promoting “M.C.I.D.” with the backdrop and singer Stevens wearing clothing and hats with that slogan. The slogan stands for “my crew is dope” refers to both his touring band and his fans (who he considered is part of his crew).

Starting their set with a Real Life cover song ‘Send Me an Angel’, was really fun to hear. Of course, the majority of the 93x audience weren’t really familiar with this classic 80’s hit song. Highly Suspect’s version is slightly slowed down, that you almost didn’t know it was a cover until the chorus.

The set was a good mix of the band’s two records (Mister Asylum and The Boy Who Died Wolf), but obviously the older songs were well-received (including ‘Lost’ and ‘Lydia’).

The encore was also really solid, ending with ‘Bloodfeather’, followed by their Grammy-nominated song ‘My Name Is Human’, and ending with a satisfying ‘Look Alive, Stay Alive’.

Saturday, 25 March 2017

I saw Jain on Stephen Colbert and was moved to order the cd based on the performance. It is very uplifting music with a definite South African beat. Reminds me of Paul Simon's GRACELAND. You'll enjoy it.
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Here are some concerts taking place in the Minneapolis/St Paul area on March 31, 2017.
We’re closing out the month with these shows.

After several sold out or packed SXSW appearances, French singer/songwriter Jain (aka Jeanne Galice) will be continuing her USA tour at the 7th Street Entry in support of her certified Gold debut record Zanaka.

Of course, all this buzz (and an appearance on Stephen Colbert couldn’t hurt), this show is sold out.

Be sure to show up early to check out New York’s Two Feet. With over 30 million Spotify streams and another 7 plus million on Soundcloud, their music has consistently been on the top charts at the Hype Machine.

Fresh off the Catfish and the Bottlemen tour, Brooklyn's Highly Suspect is back in Minneapolis for a little Summer tour. This is their first run after the release of Mister Asylum and they are super
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M.C.I.D.

Four letters that define the Highly Suspect fan and if you don’t know what they are, chances are you will soon, as the trio is clearly on the cusp of making a bigger leap to music stardom after their recent sold-out show at the Fine Line Music Café.

Local bedroom dream pop/post-punk act Strange Relations opened the evening with songs from their 2015 release –Centrism and subsequent follow up EP, Going Out (on Tony Engines). Casey Sowa (vocals/drums), along with Maro Helgeson (bass, synth), and Nate Hart-Andersen (guitar) have garnered a growing following both locally and beyond, with songs like the synth heavy ‘Ceremonies’ and the deep throb of ‘Predation’. The band, voted Best Rock Band in City Pages last year, had a short opening run for the headliner, and were clearly thrilled to have the opportunity, which also translated well in terms of their live performance.

Lights dimmed and those chants of “M-C-I-D” from a crowd that had ballooned in size after the opening set, filling the room as rising Brooklyn band Highly Suspect took to the stage. The trio is childhood friends Johnny Stevens– guitar, vocals; and twins Ryan Meyer- drums and Rich Meyer- bass and that acronym stands for “my crew is dope”, showing allegiance both to their crew and the fans they consider part of their family. It has evolved into something of a rallying cry and now is even a clothing line- with singer Stevens was wearing the hat, and drummer Meyer the shirt and hat, along with road crew members.

The band plays unadulterated, devil-may-care bluesy rock with a post-punk bar band underbelly, similar in vein to Queens of the Stone Age, Chevelle, or the UK’s Royal Blood and had a huge loyal fan base representing locally (many in those MCID t-shirts) after successful local shows headlining the smaller Triple Rock and in support of The Struts and Catfish and the Bottlemen.

The mostly younger crowd was immediately near pandemonium from the opening and frenzied ‘Bath Salts’ from most recent album Mister Asylum (on 300 Entertainment), with their follow-up release, The Boy Who Died Wolf due out in November… not that you had to tell anyone in the crowd, that were already so tuned into the band.

Proof that the band had outgrown this size club was given during ‘F**k Me Up’, an unapologetic, balls-out rawk anthem that cuts loose and invites the audience along with it. ‘Vanity’ lyrically was heartfelt, an emotional track about reconciliation and understanding towards someone close to you.

The Grammy-nominated ‘Lydia’ was written by Stevens about an ex-girlfriend and letting go to each become the person they need to be, and obviously touched many in the crowd from their facial reactions. The new ‘Serotonia’ was a preview of the upcoming album (as was ‘My Name is Human’) and written about California, then the pace slowed down only momentarily, as bassist Meyer took over for ‘Round & Round’.

Mister Asylum’s second single, the bass heavy ‘Claudeland’ was written by Stevens to cheer a friend up and it clearly worked on the audience, who again seemed to know every word and was invited to all dance along.

Ending with ‘Fire in Bedstuy’ (so far unreleased, but may or may not end up on the new record) and obviously having a lot of fun playing, Highly Suspect staked their claim to play a much larger venue, the next time through town. Stevens sings “the bigger the river, the bigger the drought” on the new ‘My Name is Human’ but it’s clear that their own river will lead to anything but a drought, anytime soon.

(* as a result of technical difficulties, no event photos are presented)

Nineties band Belly (not to be confused with Canadian Hip Hop artist Belly) has reunited and will be headlining First Avenue’s mainroom this Sunday, September 18th. This is their last show for 2016, the night before they will play the Vic Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

If you’re not familiar with Belly, they formed in 1991 (alongside with The Breeders) when singer Tanya Donelly left Throwing Muses. Throwing Muses continued on with singer Kristin Hersh (who also enjoyed a solo career).

Belly’s single ‘Feed the Tree’ became a hit for the band, and by 1993, their debut album Star went Gold.

Although we never saw Belly when they were together, we did manage to see Tanya Donelly in 2002 when she was on tour for Beautysleep. Personal anecdote, but she had brought her child with her on tour and he or she was sleeping in the greenroom and couldn’t stay out that late to sign autographs or do meet & greets.

The last time we caught Highly Suspect at First Avenue on September 2015, we were really impressed with their high energy show and saw numerous fans singing along.... so we’re not surprise to see that they’ve sold out the Fine Line Music Café this Sunday, September 18th.

Fresh off the Catfish and the Bottlemen tour, Brooklyn's Highly Suspect is back in Minneapolis for a little Summer tour. This is their first run after the release of Mister Asylum and they are super
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After completely selling out the smaller 7th Street Entry, The Struts and Highly Suspect show in Minneapolis was quickly upgraded to the much larger-capacity main room.

Highly Suspect

The evening began with a headliner-sized set from Cape Cod, MA band Highly Suspect, playing locally for the third time in as many months (opening for Catfish and the Bottlemen and a sold out headlining set at the Triple Rock came prior), and who have very obviously built a healthy area fan base.

The frenetic trio (Ryan Meyer - drums, vocals; Rich Meyer - bass, vocals; Johnny Stevens – guitar, vocals, synthesizer) not only rocked with their 50 min. set, they rawked, playing in support of their first full-length, Mister Asylum (on 300 Entertainment) and fans responded in kind, especially to ‘Bath Salts’, new single ‘Lydia’, and even the unreleased ‘Fire in Bedstuy’.

Singer Stevens was clearly having fun, calling out all the people in the crowd wearing their t-shirts and with ‘Lydia’ peaking at #4 on the Mainstream Rock chart, plan to hear much more from this diverse hard alternative threesome that can channel the muddiness of a Soundgarden one minute and the crunch of vintage Black Sabbath, the next.

The Struts

Entering on stage to Klaus Doldinger's "Bastian's Happy Flight" from the 1984 film The Neverending Story (which we love... and you can hear 23 cover songs of the theme song here), glam rockers The Struts launched into "Roll Up", singing "Roll up, roll up, roll up for satisfaction/Everybody wants/Every boy needs... To get some action" The lyrics, combined with frontman Luke Spiller's "dancing like a t***", instantly drew heavy comparisons to Mick Jagger from the Rolling Stones.

Americans may have only heard of The Struts this year, but the truth is that the band has been around for at least five years now, complete with a debut single ‘I Just Know’ in 2012 and full length album Everybody Wants (Virgin/EMI) in 2014. However, as an introduction to America, they've only officially released one EP, Have You Heard to us and (perhaps smartly) decided to only play those particular songs (all four songs), and throwing in a few more from their debut album. With a total of seven songs (and one encore song), on paper should have only been, at best, a 40-minute set... but somehow the band managed to vamp out their set to nearly an hour. A typical Struts song is stretched from three minutes to about fifteen minutes!

Frontman Luke Spiller, despite undergoing vocal problems, was determined to give us the best show of our lives. Spiller said, "As you can hear, my voice is f**** tonight... Hope you are not disappointed." Shortly after that announcement, he started screaming and singing to ‘Kiss This’. He actually sounded completely fine, and no one would have been the wiser if he hadn't mention anything about his voice.

Setlist

The rest of the show had Spiller undergoing three costume changes, which is always fun to watch. Spiller had the audience in his hands, often directing the crowd to do sing back competitions or sitting down/ready to pounce... and the audience loved it.

Before their last song, Spiller, once again, apologized for his voice, but promised to be "in top form next time" and then that they promised to play "two hours!"

The breakout U.K. band continues their US tour with some additional dates recently added - see listing below:

TRASH FILM DEBAUCHERY
at Turf Club
Monday, 08/10/2015, 7pm (FREE)turfclub.net

If you're looking for an alternate to the Walker Art's Music & Movies at Loring Park, head over to the Turf Club to see Trash Film Debauchery playing Hackers. Hacking in 1995 apparently involves skateboarding hot people like Jonny Lee Miller (Sick Boy from Trainspotting) and Angelina Jolie.

This will be a great time to check out the 20 year old movie before they release the 20th Anniversary Edition of the Bluray, coming out August 18th, 2015, via Shout! Factory.

Synopsis:

A teenage hacker finds himself framed for the theft of millions of dollars from a major corporation. Master hacker Dade Murphy, aka Zero Cool, aka Crash Override, has been banned from touching a keyboard for seven years after crashing over 1,500 Wall Street computers at the age of 11. Now keen to get back in front of a monitor, he finds himself in more trouble than ever.

Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo is returning back to the Minnesota Zoo next Tuesday, August 11th. Sure, it's no longer the 35th Anniversary Tour, but they are promoting a live CD/DVD album 35th Anniversary Tour (Live), which came out April 28th, 2015 (recorded during their 2014 tour).

“Most of you already know about Spyder’s injury to his eye and the emergency surgery he had over the weekend. He’s doing very well and should make a full recovery. Unfortunately, he will be unable to travel or perform for a while. It is with our deepest regret and sincerest apologies, that effective immediately, all 5 shows previously scheduled for Aug 11-16 will have to be cancelled.” –Pat & Spyder

Highly Suspect, the Brooklyn (via Cape Cod) band have already had quite a year--having recently toured with Catfish And The Bottlemen, playing Bonnaroo for the first time and finding early success at Active Rock Radio
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Fresh off the Catfish and the Bottlemen tour, Brooklyn's Highly Suspect is back in Minneapolis for a little Summer tour. This is their first run after the release of Mister Asylum and they are super excited to hit the road in support of the album.

As of this writing, no opening bands have been announced for the Triple Rock Social Club show in Minneapolis.